UPDATE: Man dies after fatally stabbing wife

POMPTON LAKES — A borough man who allegedly stabbed his wife to death then slashed his own throat Sunday night has died.

Police said they were informed at 9:05 p.m. Monday by staff at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson that Jitendrab Patel, 51, of Mountainside Drive, had expired. Patel had undergone surgery and was reported by police to be in critical but stable condition Monday evening. He had been scheduled for a second surgery Tuesday, police said.

If he had survived, Patel faced murder and weapons charges for the alleged attack on his estranged wife, Pratixabahen Patel, 35, who was seeking a divorce and looking forward to a new life, neighbors said.

That dream ended Sunday night.

The couple’s downstairs neighbors said they heard loud screams and stomping upstairs Sunday night and then the Patel’s 9-year-old daughter ran down to them crying hysterically and asking them to call 911. “She said, ‘My father is killing my mother,: said Albert Gerais, the neighbor.

On Tuesday, the child and Pratixabahen Patel’s parents, who are staying with close friends of the family in Parsippany, struggled to deal with the tragedy as they made funeral arrangements for today or Thursday in Raritan for the victim, who was Hindu. Pratixabahen, friends said, will be cremated. She has two brothers who live in Ohio, they said.

“Everyone is in deep grief,” said Jagdish Patel, whose wife, Kinnari Patel, was close friends with Pratixabahen. The victim’s parents and daughter are staying with Jagdish and Kinnari. “It is not only the loss of Pratixabahen, a lovely, friendly person, that hurts so much but also how she was taken from them.”

PNY Tech, Inc. in Parsippany where both of the Patels had worked, declined comment , although a worker there said Pratixabahen “was lovely.”

Jagdish said the daughter, who witnessed the attack, “is loved very much by our children who are grown up.”

“She is self-contained, she is not talking too much,” he said. “Before when she visited she used to hug me but she is quiet now. It’s going to be very difficult for her and for Pratixabahen’s parents, too.”

Athough the marriage of the couple 13 years ago was arranged by their families in India, Jagdish said he did not think that the dominance and controlling nature described by neighbors of the alleged assailant was cultural.

“It’s the personality of the person, not something cultural, otherwise it would happen in all Indian families” said Jagdish, who is Indian. “Killing your own wife … that’s inhuman, isn’t it?”

Police said they received a call at 10:07 p.m. Sunday about a domestic disturbance at the Patel condominium. Police said they had gone to the condominium before on other calls of domestic disturbance. The three responding officers found the door locked and were about to kick it in when Pursottamdash Patel, the victim’s father who lived with his daughter, offered them the key to the condo. He had run out with the granddaughter to get help when the dispute began.

The officers entered the residence and observed “blood all over the dining room and the kitchen,” according to borough police Detective Lt. Steve Seifried. “As they rounded the corner, they observed the husband leaning over in the kitchen stabbing her in the upper chest.”

Police said Pratixabahen Patel had been stabbed numerous times.

The officers drew their weapons and ordered Patel to drop the knife but it was stuck in the victim’s chest. He grabbed another off the counter. “He cut across the length of his neck and fell on top of his wife,” Seifried said.

Pratixabahen Patel was pronounced dead at the scene. Results from an autopsy are not expected for several weeks. Her husband was transported to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center and placed in intensive care.